Clive Taylor

Clive Taylor, who has died aged 91, won an MC in Germany in the last month of
the campaign in north-west Europe.

On April 19 1945, Taylor was commanding a troop of four armoured cars of the Inns of Court Regiment. After being ordered to reconnoitre the roads in the area of Salzhausen, west of Lüneburg, he took 15 Wehrmacht prisoners and learned from them that Salzhausen was held by 200 of the enemy — among them SS troops.

On the outskirts of the village his troop came up against machine-gun and bazooka positions. He dismounted from his armoured car and led three of his men into the village under covering fire from his machine guns.

Taylor knocked out one of the enemy posts with a hand grenade, and after the others had been destroyed he gave a pre-arranged signal to his armoured cars to advance, firing all their guns. The German troops were convinced that they were being attacked by a much larger force, and Taylor’s quick thinking, dash and determination resulted in the capture of the village and a total “bag” of 150 prisoners, including 25 SS. He was awarded an immediate MC.

Clive Shackleton Taylor was born at Hale, Cheshire, on September 8 1920 and educated at Altrincham County High School for Boys. In 1939 he enlisted in the Corps of Royal Engineers, but at Sandhurst he was told that it was “a suicide job” and transferred to the Inns of Court Regiment, which was equipped with armoured cars.

His report, on passing out from the Royal Military College, stated that “this cadet possesses the qualities of leadership, initiative, self-reliance and quick thinking to an almost embarrassing degree”. He was commissioned in 1943, and the following year, in fierce fighting around Caen, his troop found a gap in the enemy lines and drove seven miles down the road through German-occupied territory to Falaise.

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German soldiers who waved at those they assumed were fellow countrymen were greeted with machine-gun fire before the cars turned round and sped back to Caen — with hand grenades lobbed into enemy lorries as they passed. They returned with much valuable intelligence.

At Antwerp, Taylor was shot through the nose by a sniper — a wound that permanently robbed him of his sense of smell – but he rejoined his regiment during the build-up to the forced crossing of the Rhine.

After the war Taylor was promoted to captain, but turned down further promotion in favour of civilian life. He studied Engineering at night school, then worked as an engineer for 20 years before taking over as managing director of the family clothes store, Taylor and Cross, in Altrincham.

In retirement, he experimented in different methods of travelling. He loved cars, motorcycles, ships, cranes, giant docks and pumping stations. Sailing in big boats was an opportunity to buttonhole the chief engineer and discuss the finer points of pressure per square inch or shaft horsepower.

His trips around the world typically involved booking a berth on a cargo boat . He might take a boat to Peru and, on arriving at the port, not bother to get off. A journey to Venice proved a great disappointment because of the absence of motor cars, and after that he avoided the tourist routes, instead seeking remote and little frequented destinations.

Clive Taylor married, in 1950, Betty Savage, who predeceased him. There were no children.